Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome to our annual Media and Analyst Conference, where we will focus on the 2023 financial results and of course, on other topics of current interest. In light of our vision, it is a pleasure to have you, each of you here at the SIX ConventionPoint in Zürich, and as you have heard, many of you joining us online. Let me begin by introducing today's speakers. They are Mr. Michael Hauser, Group CEO, and Mr. Stéphane Pittet, Group CFO. Both of them are going to give you a lot of information, as you can see here in the program. By the way, Mr. Hauser will update you on several topics this morning, and Mr. Pittet will focus on the 2023 financial results.
As you can see in the program, you will have the opportunity to ask questions to both gentlemen after the conference. This applies to all of you in the room and those of you who are joining us online. I will come back to you in order to explain a little bit how we want to run the Q&A, so that the people also online can follow the conference in a correct way. I would like now to hand over to Mr. Michael Hauser.
So thank you, Rolf. So ladies and gentlemen, I would like to welcome you to the first Media and Analyst Conference of StarragTornos, and thank you for accepting our invitation in such large numbers. Following the successful merger of Starrag and Tornos to form the StarragTornos Group in December 2023, we are delighted to present to you today the first figures of 2022, 2023 of our new group. We are page number 6, 7, yeah. We are pleased that the shareholders of Starrag and Tornos approved the merger by an overwhelming majority at the end of November 2023, and that we will now together be shaping the future of the global metal- cutting machine tool industry as the StarragTornos Group. On page number 8, one more time, the three most important key statements that characterize this merger.
First of all, the merger is founded or based from a, on a position of strength. Both companies were and are healthy and made their homework before the merger. Starrag and Tornos are joining forces as manufacturers of precision machine tools to create sustainable stakeholder value, which means creating an added value for shareholders, employees, and customers. Secondly, we will have promising growth opportunities. There will be long-term profitable growth, thanks to enhanced technological competence and innovative power. Focus on growth markets and new customer applications, such as in the MedTech or Luxury Goods segment. Efficient use of strong global presence, for example, in Asia or in Americas, and also expansion of services businesses. At least, but not least, at last, but not least, we will generate added value thanks to synergy effects.
The profitability will improve through optimization of the shared value-adding chain, for example, through combined procurement, production networks, strong joint services, organization, and we will be able to accelerate product development projects by sharing R&D resources. Next page. Since the coming to reporting, since the fusion was technically an absorption merger, the annual figures of the Starrag are consolidated with the results of Tornos for the month of December 2023 in the financial report, which means 12 months of Starrag Group, plus one month of Tornos Group. To give you a more realistic picture of the overall development of the StarragTornos Group with the two divisions, Starrag and Tornos, you will also find the pro forma figures for StarragTornos on an annual basis for 2023 and 2022 in the first part of this report.
This means 12 months of Starrag Group, plus 12 months of Tornos Group. Next page. We have an overview here about the business development and some key figures. This shows a significant increase in sales and a leap in profits. Compared to the previous year and based on the pro forma figures, StarragTornos increased the net sales by 13% to CHF 565 million, the EBIT by an impressive 57% to CHF 46 million, and the net profits by 56% to CHF 28 million, from CHF 28 million to CHF 32 million, and the EBIT margin rose from 5.9% to 8.2%. The cost of the merger of around CHF 1.7 million are included in these EBIT figures.
After both Starrag and Tornos posted outstanding order backlogs at the end of 2022, the StarragTornos Group reported a consolidated order backlog of CHF 341 million on a pro forma basis at the end of 2023. In the previous year, as you can see, it was around CHF 395 million. Next page. As a substantial growth was achieved by the group in 2023 in the aerospace and in the so-called Transportation market segment. Last one is, in this Transportation market, is especially the truck and bus business, which was booming last year, as well as in the service and spare part business, while the other sectors were declining. Next page. Looking into the region, into the geographical distribution, you can see that basically all regions were declining as the order intake concerns.
But for the future, I have to say that Starrag and Tornos are a good fit in terms of geography. By merging, the group has set a course for further growth in promising target markets. In Europe, StarragTornos is the fourth largest manufacturer of metal- cutting machine tools, with a focus on turning and milling. The merger has also led to significant improvement in its market position in North America and Asia. And thanks to the group's global presence, also in the United States and India, for example, StarragTornos is perfectly equipped for the de-globalization and reshoring trends in the various target markets. Next page.
When we talk about net sales, so Starrag and Tornos net sales did not only increase by selling new machines, but also by services which continued to perform well in 2023, with sales in this area rising by roughly 7% compared with 2022 on a pro forma basis. And this business now accounts for 24% of total sales at Starrag Tornos. We are, next page, on the financial report, and I would like to hand over to my colleague and CFO, Stéphane Pittet, who will give you further details on this subject.
So for the financial, please allow me to guide you deeper into these figures. First, in terms of introduction in the, in the next slide, the merger contract said the legal date for the transaction is July 1st, while accounting standard recognized it on December 7th. So it means for, which is the date of the registration in the Register of Commerce. Although we call it a wedding, it's in our documentation, technically, it's an absorption. The Tornos holding was absorbed by the Starrag holding. So consistently, the final results, 2023, show full year of Starrag in one month of Tornos.
But for the interest of the transparency, we will present our results not only as a financial result with these 12 + 1 month, but we'll show you also aggregated figures so that it's readable for all of you. On the next slide, I will come back to this five-year comparison. Even if we show a step back in the order entry, we stay at an extremely high level for the third consecutive years. We have strongly increased our production output and get close to the very good 2019 years, but with a major difference. The major difference is that in 2019, we reached CHF 623 million against aggregated, so the Group Tornos and the Group Starrag together. Even if we had that Starrag some punctual one-time impact, we remain very far.
Even eliminating this, we remain very far from the actual performance. So the efforts of Tornos and Starrag in the last years, in order to bring a lower breakeven point and to bring a more flexibilization in the production tool, have brought the fruit now. And we have now an EBIT of CHF 46 million and 8% based on the net sales, which is, I think, obvious on this graph, a major step forward for the new group. On the next slide, I will come back on the order backlog and the order intake. So the order intake in the second half year was slightly overpassed in the first half year. Compared to the first half year, sorry.
which shows the strong resistance of the group, of our group today, to economic cycles. The backlog situation ensures us a strong start into 2024. We get into it with a strong backlog of orders. On the next slide, I will come back to this increase in sales. As you can see, our prudence in negotiating contracts with the management of foreign currencies has protected us from suffering too much of the currency turbulences throughout the last year. And the organic growth of CHF 79 million has been only possible, thanks to a leap forward in our production output. So we have been able to make a much better use of our installed capacity last year.
Coming back on the next slide on the income statement, we can see there that we have mentioned already the revenue side. Now going to the expense side, we can see that the material consumption, without surprise, was in line with our sales. But the key performance and this leap in the profitability comes from the growing of indirect costs and personal costs in a much lower fashion compared to the growth of our sales. And of course, you see, we have jumped from 6% in the EBIT to more than 8%, basically, related to this efficiency gain.
On the next slide, I will come back to the key figures at a glance, and just to try not to confuse you with this, we have on the left side, this pro forma, as you can see here. So we have here on this side, the pro forma, on this side, the financial statements. So financial statement, 12 months, Starrag and 1 month Tornos, pro forma, 12 months for both companies. Despite the 10% decrease in order entry, we would like to underline that in this context for this type of industry, it remains a very strong performance, showing the resilience of our newly built group. And 2022 was already a very good year for most of the business units of our Starrag Tornos.
So within regard to this, it remains very strong. And currently, sorry, we have successfully increased our production with bringing this 13% in sales, as commented previously. And we have still increased our inventory, which gives us some potential in terms of economic upturn. We are ready to face any scenario now with this situation. We have strong back orders. We have the inventory we can deliver. So, in a nutshell, the extended size and diversified presence across multiple industries within the StarragTornos Group equip us effectively to weather fluctuation in orders. Given our current backlog, our enhanced production output, and our improved profitability, we stand confident, prepared to tackle any future challenges head on.
On bringing you through in the next slide on the financial results specifically, we have, due to our spread all over the world and positioning with the factories in Asia, distribution companies in the US and strong presence in Germany and Switzerland, we have a lot of positions in our balance sheets which are in foreign currencies, and we see the impact of these currency moves in the financial results. Despite a notable increase in profit before tax, it hasn't translated into higher tax expenses due to carry forward tax benefits. We still have further tax assets in our balance sheet for a further utilization in the future. Earnings per share surged in 2023, especially in consideration of our low valuation, on which of the share, on which we will come back afterwards.
Showing you briefly on the next slide, the EBIT bridge. You see, this is only based on the financial figures, so it's less speaking, maybe, but it shows already. It shows very well, and the takeaway from this slide is that everything we have done in the past to restructure, re-engineer both division of the group now bring the fruit and have a strong impact on our result this year. Bring you in the next slide through the balance sheet, where we see that given due to the merge, we have a big increase in the sum, in the total of our balance sheet. It's a one-time impact because we combined both companies.
Again, we are in the balance sheet in the financial figures, so we compare 2022 of Starrag only, and 2023 Tornos, Starrag, which is, of course, a totally different picture. What we can still take away from this slide is the 58.7% in terms of equity. It means that we are very healthy financially, and we are very autonomous in terms of decision-making for the future and in our investment and strategy. The current high inventory position us very well to respond swiftly to investment opportunities and bolster our cash positioning.
So we have a cash reserve there that we will use in the coming years, and we are ready in terms for the next economic upturn to be fast with the delivery, which we know by experience. It's a key asset when you enter an economic upturn. Then, shortly in the next slide, the free cash flow, also a mix in the view between Tornos, Starrag, and it's the financial view, so it's not the best thing, the easiest thing to read and to interpret.
But we at the end, we can show that even though we had an increase of inventory, we are still able to generate cash and we have positive development of the cash flow, which gives us also a strong position in order to face future challenges. Having seen this, I would come in the next slide about come back to this point, market capitalization, because I think it's a key message today. Usually, we don't. It's not our policy to comment on the market capitalization of our shares, and we might abstain to do it in the future. But under these circumstances, I have to draw your attention on few key figures. Our equity value in the balance sheet is at CHF 360 million.
So compared to the CHF 260 million market cap, is slightly higher now since we have made the slide, but it's not a big change. So if we compare the CHF 260 million CHF to the 316 million in our equity, we already see that something is wrong because we have, of course, latent reserves, and the equity doesn't take into account the potential for the future. During also another interesting figures, during the merger process, we had an independent evaluation made by IFBC. It's on our website. You can see it. And the purpose of this analysis was to value both companies in order to confirm the price for the merger.
The assessment of this company was that our value, our fair value, is CHF 568 million. So it's more than the double of the actual market cap. Just if you go through any indicator, any key figure you will take, give you the same, if you take the net result or the dividend, in percentage of the market cap, of course, it's obvious that we are underevaluated. Even just looking at the real estate, we have an insurance value, which is already higher than our market cap, without taking into machinery and equipment into account.
So, maybe last point about it, we know we have this label on our back, coming from the previous companies, from Tornos and from Starrag, that there is no volume and that there is no free float. Today, we have a free float of CHF 110 million. We have seen an increase already in the volume of transaction, so I think this is also something inherited from the past, but not reflecting actual reality. So conclusion of this, for me, is that we are very good and excellent opportunity for investors today. Thank you. Give you the word.
Thank you, Stéphane. Now we are on the page 29 and 30. Let's move onto sustainability, a topic which will affect all of us and will become even more important in the future. Both divisions were already working intensively on this topic before the merger. Appropriate measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions were introduced on all levels, such as company level, product level, and also on supply chain level. Substantial investments were taken also in 2023. New laws and regulations, such as avoidance of child labor and conflict materials, were of course fully respected, as well as other compliance topics such as data protection and cybersecurity, carefully treated. Of course, we have not forgotten our people... We want to value our employees, promote talents, prevent discrimination, and we want to remain an attractive employer.
In the recent weeks, the group has integrated the existing sustainability programs of Starrag and Tornos into a joint program called Growing Sustainable. This is the beginning of a holistic approach to StarragTornos environmental, social, and governance initiatives. It provides a fundamental framework for further development and effective activities. Detailed information can be found in the StarragTornos sustainability report, which is an integral part of the Annual Report 2023. We are on page 32 and following. Now, I would like to address some of our customer success stories. On page 33, as I mentioned before, StarragTornos had a pleasing development in the aerospace market.
One of our customers who appreciates our products and services offering is called Premium AEROTEC in Varel, Germany, which is a supplier of structural components to the aviation industry such as Airbus and ESA, so the European Space Agency. They are machining large, complex parts, such as wings, out of aluminum, titanium, and other alloys. In the last 20 years, they bought more than 13 so-called ECOSPEED machines from Starrag. These machines are extremely fast, precise, and powerful. All of these machines are linked to each other, and every step of machining is supervised by special monitoring systems. Recently, this customer decided to buy also four STC 1050 HD, a brand-new machine introduced at the EMO last year with hydrostatic guideways, specially designed to machine toughest materials.
With this machine, the customer can reduce substantially his machining time, energy consumption, and tool wear. Page 34. Another success story, this time from Tornos, is a French customer called ACTEON. It's a large international group, active in the manufacture of ultrasonic dental and surgical equipment. These ultrasonic devices, originally designed for the dentistry, became popular for bone surgery operations. For example, in rhinoplastic operations to sculpt bones with great precision. In this application, ACTEON is the market leader. The so-called inserts, the cutters or the tips, are made out of either stainless steel or titanium, and they have to be machined in one operation, free of burr. Tornos had the right answer to this application problem, and today this customer has plenty of different Tornos machines installed in his factory. We are page 35.
At last, but not least, an example of customer success story is from Niru Swiss, which is a part of a Tel Aviv-based international Niru Diamonds Israel Ltd. This company had their roots in the jewelry industry and is specialized in the machining and finishing rough diamonds. In 1929, they started a company in Switzerland to address the watch market. Bumotec and Starrag brand helped them technically, and soon they became successful in this sector. Today, they work on Bumotec machines to serve primarily the most Swiss premium watchmakers. We are now page 36. Come, let's talk about the strategy. I already outlined the key elements at our conference on the 26th October 2023. These documents can be downloaded at any time.
Nevertheless, I would like to reiterate once again the cornerstones of our strategy at this point. The successful merger of Starrag and Tornos in December 2023 offers promising prospects for all stakeholders of the StarragTornos Group. Customers will benefit from technical innovations, new products, and expanded services. Employees will gain new opportunities for personal development, and shareholders will enjoy an excellent foundation for sustainable shareholder value. Page 37. We are talking about the first cornerstone, and it's about customer and market orientation, innovation. This, the technologies and solutions of Starrag and Tornos are Rooted in Switzerland and world leading. The combination of this technical expertise in the field of precision machine tools and complementary technologies provides StarragTornos with an excellent basis for customer and market-oriented innovations and technological progress.
In our development activities, we work closely with our customers, as well as with leading technical universities and research institutes. We systematically modularize our products in order to extend the possible applications of the existing machine series to other market segments. Thanks to StarragTornos' core expertise in the entire machining systems, from software development to application and system integration, to the after-sales service, we create added value for our customers.... The second cornerstone relates to the worldwide geographical presence. StarragTornos operates sales and service, production and research, and development centers in Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, the U.K., America, Mexico, Brazil, China, Thailand, and the Taiwan region, and India. Totally, we have 11 factories and 13 own sales companies around the world. Our international customers value short and direct communication channels.
Our experienced local sales application and service specialists are familiar with local cultures and customs, and are able to respond quickly. Our integrated global logistics system, with optimized transport routes and decentralized spare parts warehouses, ensure a fast and efficient supply of parts. The third cornerstone is about comprehensive services, meeting customers' needs with foresight, with its enlarged product range, StarragTornos is addressing the diverse needs and opportunities of its customers on a much broader basis. However, services are also becoming more and more important in line with sustainability requirements and the so-called circular economy. Just a remark here, 20% of our total service is already circular economy, so we're using, reusing parts or modernize existing machines. StarragTornos strives to stay one step ahead of the competition. This also applies to the increasingly demanding and constantly growing after sales business.
Also, to mention here, more than a quarter of all employees work in customer service nowadays. The fourth cornerstone is operational excellence. As an overarching link, the Starrag Tornos Group ensures high quality standards and taps into synergies along the entire value chain. The successful merger of Starrag and Tornos is opening up further operational synergies, particularly in the areas of research and development, manufacturing, assembly, procurement, logistics, and sales. Sharing the resources and streamlining processes increases our efficiency, and we are strengthening our position through the targeted use of operational synergies. Page 39, talking about the target markets. The Starrag Tornos Group concentrates its range of products on six main target markets: Aerospace, MedT ech & Dental, Luxury Goods, Energy, Transportation, and Industrial. These target markets are subdivided into individual market segments, depending on the specific application required.
StarragTornos's six target markets are characterized by sustainable growth, potential based on mega trends, and changing social expectations. In addition, increasing demands for production efficiency require higher precision in production, both with larger workpieces, such as structural parts for aircraft or ship propellers, and with increasingly small and complex workpieces, such as precision mechanics, watches, and medical technology. This is exactly in line with the core competencies of StarragTornos Group. Experts estimate that we have an access to market potential of around EUR 14 billion worldwide, which is more than 20x the current sales revenue. This means that substantial growth opportunities are still opening up for StarragTornos in these long-term growth markets. Page number 40. The Starrag and Tornos divisions pursue their own brand strategies.
The best trademark ambassadors can be found in StarragTornos installed base at customer sites around the world. We assess how we are perceived in the marketplace during our regular contact with customers. In the Starrag division, the umbrella brand, Starrag, unites the product ranges called Berthiez, Bumotec, Dörries, Droop+Rein, ECOSPEED, Heckert, Scharmann/ Ecoforce, SIP, Starrag, and TTL. The product ranges are used in all corporate and marketing communication, especially at leading fairs with a high international standing, at specialized trade fairs with a strong regional attraction, and in the division's customers' magazine called Starrag Star. In the Tornos division, the Tornos brand identifies every machine manufactured by this division.
Tornos has built up a solid portfolio of business activities, covering a comprehensive range of technologies and competencies in the field of Swiss-type automatic lathes, multi-spindle machines, and milling systems, including peripheral equipment and cutting-edge software. The brand and machine names are used in all corporate and marketing communication, also, especially in leading fairs with high international standing, specialized trade fairs with strong regional attraction, and in the division's customer magazine called Decom agazine. Now coming to the page number 42, Outlook. In view of the good order backlog and the promising prospects offered by the merger between Starrag and Tornos, StarragTornos is very well positioned for 2024. However, it's difficult to make specific forecasts due to the fact that the global economic development remain unpredictable.
The ongoing war in Ukraine and the numerous political and social conflicts and unrest in other regions bring with them many uncertainties. This also includes inflationary and recent recessionary trends in value sales regions. However, the successful merger to form the StarragTornos Group offers the opportunity to significantly increase market presence worldwide and further expand attractive customer segments. StarragTornos has set up a project organization to make an optimum use of growth opportunities and efficiently realize synergy potential. A number of project teams with members from both divisions are working on defined projects in the areas of procurement, service, innovation, footprint optimization at production sites, and sales and marketing. We are now coming to the end of my presentation on page 43.
Investment case, as mentioned before by Stéphane, the successful merger to form the StarragTornos Group, has given us the opportunity to significantly increase our market presence globally and to further expand attractive customer segments. In the medium term, we are aiming for an annual increase in sales of 5% and an EBIT over 8%. We're also expecting this growth as a result of the worldwide scalability of our expertise in the areas of activity and markets, in which we have not yet achieved the desired leading market position. The successful merger of Starrag and Tornos has created a globally active and powerful group, that will significantly influence and shape the future of the global machine tool industry. With a larger market capitalization and higher trading volume, the attractiveness of the StarragTornos share is increasing.
However, StarragTornos shareholders will not only benefit from a good share price performance, we also want to offer them an attractive dividend with a payout ratio of 35%-50% of the annual profits. So I'm at the end of my presentation and speech, and we are now open for questions and answers. Thank you very much.
Indeed, we are now starting our Q&A. As I mentioned at the introduction, we have roughly 30 people that are joining us via an online connection. We first start with your questions in the room here, and then we will switch over to the people online. If you have a question, just raise your hand and I come with the microphone so that also the people that are following us online are able to follow us here in the room. Any questions?
Thank you. Marc Possa, VV AG. You mentioned the tax assets that you still have. Can you mention how much this is, and how long they last, and where they are?
So, we have basically tax assets in two countries. It's Switzerland and Germany. In Germany, it's not limited in time, so we can use it any time. And in Switzerland, we have a perspective to use it within the given legal time. So, the size more or less is something like EUR 40 million in Germany. But, just this—the figures I have in my mind, I don't catch me on this, if I'm not exactly, but it's just the size more or less, and more or less CHF 10 million in Switzerland. So it's a good situation where we can use it.
Okay. May I just ask another second question concerning the natural hedge or the currency exposure?
Yeah.
Can you show us or tell us where there is some mismatches?
Okay, yeah.
How you plan to kind of decrease them?
Basically, basically, what we can say is in terms of euro, we have very good balance because we have a lot of sourcing in Europe. We have also production sites in Europe, in Germany, three different sites in Germany, which gives us a natural hedging, very well balanced between Swiss francs and euro. We have a slightly higher exposure in terms of dollars. We have a production in Xi'an and Taiwan, and as long as the dollars develops in parallel with the RMB and Taiwan dollar, we can have some hedging. But by experience, we know we have more income in dollars than expenses, so our exposure is slightly bigger in terms of dollars. This is for the income.
In terms of balance sheet, of course, we have this position in foreign currency, which are not hedged, and where we are exposed in terms of financial result to currency fluctuations.
...May I just add another question, is that possible? Page 39 of the presentation, the target markets, these six target markets, could you just quickly tell us, in each of those target markets, what you have as a market share and what your position is, and maybe your USP?
This, I leave it to you, I think.
I mean, just in ballpark figures, you know, for us to get a feel for.
So, how much time do we have? So when we talk, just need a little bit to look in the overall figures. So when we go in the target market, number one, we have, in the luxury market, which is our major contributor, with about a share, I just have to look at it here. Yeah. Global share of about 26%, if I don't. One second. Just, where is it? Here. Yeah, it's about 26%, it's Luxury Goods. And here we have a very strong position, because what we cover, basically, first of all, it's an attractive market segment. You, I don't know, want to name all the luxury brands in Switzerland, but not only Switzerland, also France and northern part of Italy.
With these premium Luxury Goods makers, you have to offer machines. Number one, they have to be very precise. They have to be very productive, very autonomous, because also they suffer of people, they don't have enough people, and the machines have to produce very good surface quality. So we talk about precious metal, we talk about ceramics, we talk about non-magnetic materials, and this is not so easy. Not everyone can do that, and in addition, these parts are mostly very, very small. So we do not offer just a machine, but the total solution, and we speak the language, which is also super important in this Luxury Goods industry.
So it's not the language Chinese, it's mostly French speaking, and the expertise is located, I would say, about 100 km around, let's say Geneva, in the circle. So we are very specialized here, and also the margins are quite attractive. We have also specialized service force, and what I mentioned before, we know the problems of the customers. The second important sector for us, it's the Aerospace. In the Aerospace sector, we have seen, we have been growing quite substantially. Starrag alone grew by 25% in this sector. Overall group grew by 70%. Here also, we offer not only machines, we offer tooling, we offer special software for all kind of applications to machine, and also trainings to machine difficult parts.
When you have the time, come to visit us in Switzerland, in our plant in Rorschacherberg, where we produce even parts more for famous manufacturer of airplanes, even for a Swiss one. Factories full of parts of this manufacturer of planes, and so we know exactly how to make the parts. And these are super critical parts, you know, parts that hold the engine, so you can imagine what this means. And we know how to make these parts, and especially from tooling software even further. Then, of course, also in the medical industry. Medical industry, which is a part that was quite growing substantially, especially for Tornos. Just remember, in the many years ago, Tornos was totally depending on the aerospace market.
Now, the biggest market for Tornos is the medical, which it's the major contributor for Tornos. Just in the last year, it's about 30%. 30% of the total business from Tornos, it's medical. Here we can see also a lot of potential for to transfer this knowledge, for example, from Tornos to Bumotec, which has good knowledge for watchmakers, for luxury industry, but not so much for medical. So combining these forces gives some potential. Of course, we have the energy sector, which was surprisingly not growing last year. But it will be growing because energy is a mega trend. We know that. But talking about windmills, for example, this business has not been growing last year because of administrative hurdles in governments.
But this will have to disappear, and also here we will have an advantage. And of course, also, not to mention, I mean, defense industry is also a business which is a business that nowadays you can talk where we have solutions to produce everything what you need to defend yourself. So that's the big picture. I don't know, Mr. Possa, whether this is enough.
Other questions?
Tobias Klöpper at ZKB. A quick question to the segments. Could you give us some information on the EBIT margins for each segment?
... It's a figure that we don't publish. It's a discussion we have right now, how we will publish in the future. We have chosen so far to say we have one activity is machine producing. You have to figure out also that, now, with the merger, we have to review internally how we will organize it in the future. And we want to get out of this definition of Starrag and Tornos. We want to consider it as a group, and we give us some space and time to do it. So we are not communicating on this.
But what we can say is, in the Luxury Goods, Medical, and Aerospace, the margins are more attractive than Automotive. I can tell you from my experience.
Perfect. Thank you. Second question, real quick. On the guidance, you overachieved pretty much this last year. What makes you cautious for the coming years?
Actually, the overall economy is not so good at the moment. When you look at the macro data and machine tool business at the moment, it's not booming at the moment. You have, I mentioned before, we have these wars, and we have these uncertainties, and uncertainty is always something which is bad for capital investment goods. However, the segments where StarragTornos is in, they will remain attractive. What I mentioned before, there's med tech. It remains aging society. Mobility, you have seen the news from Airbus this morning taking over Boeing. On the other hand, you have seen Boeing, if they are not able to deliver enough planes, the suppliers will not have the work.
These uncertainties, we cannot influence them, but what we know is we have enough to do. So that's a bit of a challenge. We have a good backlog, of course, which makes us confident that our figures should be okay, but there's still possibilities that you know orders could be moved or whatever. But I'm confident, let's say, despite the fact that the overall economy is not the best.
Thank you. Maybe last question, if you allow, on your synergies. You talked about positive influence on earnings in 2025, I think. Can you give us a rough number, what you expect?
Actually, what we mentioned, this was in the publication in October 2023. We said that on the top line, we will grow by CHF 10 million, and on the cost side, we will decrease by CHF 10 million. So overall, an EBIT impact of 1%-1.5%, based or to compare with 2022. So it should be 1%-1.5% in EBIT.
Thank you.
Any other questions here in the room? Okay, then I would like to hand over to the people that are online.
For questions over the phone, you may press star and one at this time. Once again, for questions over the phone, you may press star and one. We have no registrations over the phone.
Okay. Then, okay, there are still some questions here in the room. Keeps us active.
Thank you. Gian Marco Werro with ZKB. I would like to ask another question on your outlook and your strategy. You mentioned that you also want to expand your market presence, in new markets and also new industries. Can you maybe elaborate a bit more about, your plans there?
Yeah. As mentioned before, okay, we have these areas where we see potential growth. I'll give you an example, India. India. I've been in India a few weeks ago, and in India, everyone talks now about China Plus One. When you talk to Indians, they say China Plus One, and the plus one relates to India. We have an excellent position there. So Tornos itself was quite successful in India in the past, but didn't have a production and not even as, let's say, a sales company and service company, but did quite good sales. Starrag historically has had already a factory in India, producing already machines, and has a site in India. So we can now combine these forces and can offer a much better offering to our customers.
Example, some of the Indian customers would like to have their investment done in the local currency. So far, we could not do that from Tornos side. Now we are able to do this, and this gave immediately impact in our business. It's still a small business related compared to China, but it's very fast-growing. And also in our case, India, last year was growing by 64%. Of course, on a smaller basis, but we see a lot of potential. In addition, there's this new just this week came out, a free trade agreement between Switzerland and India, which helps us a lot. So it's a very good trend. India. Then we talk about America.
Also, America, as I mentioned before, we have, in America, we have, we can now combine the forces. And we see some potential, especially for the MedTech. MedTech business is mostly driven technology-wise from America, and we are going to invest there together combined, which each single division could not do. So we can also here get some synergies.
Thank you.
Thank you. Can you maybe say something about the beginning of this year in terms of, order intake or so? How is the development right now of your business, of your-
Yeah.
Of your order, order?
As I mentioned before, business is not booming at the moment. However, I cannot complain, let's say. In the areas where we are in, it's still active and, so of course we are working on the backlog, the huge backlog that we have, so we are busy in our factories. So most of our factories are fully loaded. Some of them, they have work more than one year. Especially, when we talk about the big size machines, sites in Germany, also Luxury Goods, it's very much loaded. I see a tendency a little bit going, flattening down. Tornos is a early cycle business. Order intake went already down in the second semester of 2023, but now it looks like it coming back a little bit.
As an early indicator, I could imagine that this could go up maybe second semester 2024. But I don't think there will be a further slowdown because we don't see. As I mentioned before, the aerospace, they need machines. We see now the energy market needs machines, defense market needs machines, MedTech needs machines. So specific to where we are in, I'm rather confident.
Did I misinterpret that on a slide you showed that the order intake in the second half of 2023 was higher than, a little higher than first half? Now, you said the order intake came a bit down. Was this-
In Tornos. I said at Tornos. At Tornos. In Tornos, not in the overall. So therefore, it's, it's quite good to have these two companies, two divisions together, because they have different cycles. So they balance it off, and overall it was an increase, but the Tornos went down compared to the first semester.
Any questions or further questions here in the people in the room? Can I ask again, also online, are there any questions?
We have a couple of questions over the webcast. The first question comes from Patrick, Patrick Keller with Alpha RHEINTAL Bank. Can you tell us something about your activities, your plant in India?
Yes. We have a factory in India, in Bangalore, which has been established maybe 10 years ago at the Starrag site. So it was partially sub-rented to other companies because it was quite a big site, and at that time, the business was not so active. And now we are doing special fixtures and for customers who need applications. So we're doing all the fixtures and the solutions to turnkey solutions for global customers today. And the plan is, apart from service and sales, of course, and showroom, the plan in the future is also to build machines out of the group. At the moment we are investigating what kind of product could be produced in this plant.
Okay, next question.
The next question comes from Sylke Becker with VDW. How are you going to handle the two brands?
Say again, please. We did not hear the question.
How are you going to handle the two brands?
Okay. It's not so difficult to handle because both brands are quite famous in their markets. And, as I mentioned before, from the branding, Tornos itself, it's a company which is more than 140 years old in the market, and there are thousands of machines installed around the world. It would be a crime to eliminate this brand. And the same is for Starrag. It's as well more than 100 years old, very much known in his specific field. So for us, it's marketing is a core competence, and it's not a big challenge. Of course, what we do is we will in the background also look for synergies here.
Our marketing departments, doesn't matter what catalog they print or what software they use, this is all the same. But at the front, we would like to maintain this differentiation.
Next question, please.
There are no further questions over the webcast.
Okay, then I think we are at the end of this conference. I would like to invite all the participants that are present here in Zürich to join us for a drink or a light lunch here at the SIX Convention Point. Once again, thank you for joining us this morning. Stay tuned, and be sure to-